A Year at Disneyland

12:32 PM

That's my story, and I'm sticking with it.

These pictures start in the fall of 2012 and aren't of every visit we made to Disneyland or California Adventure, but do give a pretty good representation of what our days there are like. We are very thankful to be able to have annual passes to the parks, which we've had for over 10 years. Every year when it's time to renew, we debate not doing it, but we always have such a good time, we give it and do another year. You can really see how Ariana matured this year if you look at these pictures then scroll down to the bottom to see her on our two most recent visits. And these girls? It's proof that you're never too old to get your face painted.

We do prefer the food options in California Adventure (plus there are cocktails), so we usually eat in that park.

The view from the terrace of the Carthay Circle and inside the dining room.

We had skipped Mickey's Halloween Party for a few years, but we went back this year because the kids said they wanted to go. They all dressed up (maybe it was forced upon the boys), and look at all that loot.

Appropriate scariness.

As much as I enjoy Halloween, Christmas isn't too bad either. We might have made the excuse of having to escape the crowds to sit down for a cocktail a little too often for it to be believable.

We went out a few weeks ago in the middle of a heat wave. It was a great time to go because the park was almost empty. The water rides were our friends that day, and I kept getting the most soaked out of all of us. Natalie is the undisputed champion at Toy Story Midway Mania. Maybe it's the hat.